


Shield of the Healer

by TwinKats



Series: The Burning of Solheim [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: A conversation before the end, Alternate Universe, Ardyn and Solheim, Ardyn and Somnus rocky relationship, Ardyn and the Burden of Destiny, Ardyn and the Scourge, Ardyn's shitty self-esteem, Gen, Pre-Canon, background mentioned Ardyn/Aera, background mentioned Gilgamesh/Somnus, pre-Episode Ardyn Prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:12:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinKats/pseuds/TwinKats
Summary: Gilgamesh never agreed with Ardyn's perceived Destiny, but he Swore an Oath to Shield the Healer-King, and so he would do so until Ardyn had no more need of him. He would protect Ardyn from his burdens and fears, even if his role must take him from the side of his King.





	Shield of the Healer

**Author's Note:**

> This is something that's been rattling around since I wrote chapter three of The Path Untrodden. Same universe, merely a moment between Gilgamesh and Ardyn. Also it gives this little AU a proper AU name now, so that's a thing!

“Gilgamesh, _please_ ,” Ardyn breathed out, eyes bright as he grasped Gilgamesh by the arm. “It is not like I am asking some great burden of you!” Gilgamesh frowned back, and then furrowed his brow in the way in which Ardyn refused to look him in the eye. He didn’t say anything, and Ardyn pulled his hand back. In a nervous gesture he picked at his fingers and then raised his head to give Gilgamesh a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You _like_ Somnus,” Ardyn said, earnestly.

“I am _your_ Shield,” Gilgamesh said, tone short, words shorter, and Ardyn looked away.

Ardyn kept his voice soft as he spoke, as he twisted his hands and began to pace. “I have never doubted that, my friend.”

“Then _why_ ,” Gilgamesh watched him, back straight and hands at his side. “Why bid me stay here, and not accompany you?”

Ardyn didn’t speak, so Gilgamesh waited. Sometimes it took time for the words to come to the Healer King, to give voice to the thoughts that rattled around in his head. If there were concerns Ardyn would raise them, Gilgamesh would counter them, and they would continue onward as they ever were. This flight of fancy to leave Gilgamesh behind in Civitas Lucii need only be addressed, tempered, and then placed aside.

Eventually Ardyn spoke, and he uttered a short, “You feel it, don’t you?” He stopped his pacing and stilled his hands. His eyes were brighter than Gilgamesh had seen them, and it worried him. Was his hair more of a mulled wine today, or was that just the sun? Gilgamesh couldn’t tell. The light always bothered him in this manner; it made colors shine and bright, but also burnt and over saturated them. “There is something wrong here,” Ardyn gave voice to his fear, and Gilgamesh sighed.

“There is a Chill,” Gilgamesh agreed. He could feel the Omen in his bones, and it was why he felt he needed to be at Ardyn’s side and not _here_.

“Then you will keep an eye on Somnus?” Ardyn said; he visibly perked up, eyes wide and face soft, lips curled into the beginning of a pleased smile.

“No,” Gilgamesh uttered, and Ardyn dropped with a groan into his chair and buried his face into his hands. He tensed, back curled forward, and Gilgamesh frowned lightly. Cautiously he stepped forward and placed a hand upon Ardyn’s shoulder, knelt until he held Ardyn’s eye. “Why are you so insistent upon this, Ardyn?”

Ardyn sighed heavily. “I worry about Som, Gil. Something is not _right_.” Ardyn’s brow furrowed down, his face pinched as he looked off to the side of Gilgamesh’s face into some distant thought. “I—I cannot explain it, my friend. The things he has said—the things he wants to _do_ ….”

Gilgamesh grasped Ardyn’s hands and tugged them up until he hand then close enough to lay a kiss upon their knuckles, to bring Ardyn’s attentions out of the darkness that burrowed into his thoughts. “You fight the same Cause.”

“We do,” Ardyn murmured.

“Your methods merely differ.”

Ardyn gave Gilgamesh a _Look_ and Gilgamesh let go of the hands with a frown. He wondered what about his words were not correct in the young Monarch’s eyes, but he had no doubt Ardyn would enlighten him to the problem shortly. Ardyn was nothing if not predictable, and the way he tugged his hands back and flew them into the air dramatically made Gilgamesh want to smile.

“That is the _point!_ ” Ardyn said, frustrated. “This Sickness, it is not _right_. We cannot treat it like any other Plague, Gilgamesh. It is not a natural born thing—we do not know what it does, how it truly spreads—he could make it _worse_ and with the way the world turns and the shortening of the Day….” Ardyn pressed his lips together. “I know we want the same thing. I know we want to rid our Star of this Plague and—and I know Somnus feels he is in the right. That his actions protect Civitas Lucii but—but I cannot agree to it. Not when we know so little about the Scourge.”

“And your way is better?” Gilgamesh questioned, and he watched how Ardyn crumpled in upon himself and grew small.

“…no,” Ardyn said eventually. “It is not.” After a second Ardyn sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face. “I know the Scourge has changed me.” He tugged a bit of his hair forward and grimaced, then shook his head. “It—it is so hard, some days, but—but the Gods gave me this power for something. If it is not to this end, then what? Why would I—why would I be able to draw it into myself, if that were not their intent? No one else can do what I can. Not even Somnus….”

“If he could would you let him?” Gilgamesh asked, and watched the way Ardyn practically snarled with that over protective instinct that seemed to be instilled into these fleeting beings from across the sea. A second later Ardyn pulled the sudden ferociousness back and forced himself to breathe; Gilgamesh watched the man he called friend struggle to remind himself that Gilgamesh did not intend Somnus harm.

“This is why we have the Confirmation,” Ardyn said eventually, once calmed. “This is why I will marry Aera.” He raised his head and looked at Gilgamesh. “A burden shared is a burden halved, yes—but this is a burden I would _never_ wish upon Somnus. No matter what he may think, Gilgamesh, Somnus…Somnus was not built for this. He was built for better things than this.”

Gilgamesh wanted to strangle Ardyn and his martyr complex; it was as if the man could not fathom himself being born for _better things_ than what he claimed to be. With dryness Gilgamesh uttered and faint, “And you _aren’t?_ ”

Ardyn laughed, and leaned forward until his forehead touched Gilgamesh’s shoulder. Gilgamesh allowed him to pull in what little comfort the gesture provided, allowed him this touch in the ways that he allowed Ardyn so many others. Gilgamesh watched as the other man’s shoulders shook, and ignored the way coldness seeped against him from tears that Ardyn refused to shed.

“This is my birthright,” Ardyn spoke, and the words were bitter. “As the last true-born blooded child of Solheim…this Scourge is mine to bear.”

Gilgamesh reached up and pulled Ardyn back. “You are not the sins of your forefathers,” he uttered. He knew what Ardyn spoke of; Gilgamesh understood. While he might not have known the stories before he came to Civitas Lucii—the tales of Solheim and its sins against the Six, or the claim that the Scourge came as a result of their folly to defy the Gods—Gilgamesh knew that Ardyn took his bitter heritage like a shield of why he was not worthy of so much more than he ever could have realized. In this way Gilgamesh also knew Ardyn protected himself; his ties to Solheim were _ancient_ things long left in the past, bound by generations of silence and cautionary tales more than likely blown out of proportion through the ages.

“I am named for them,” Ardyn said brokenly. “Ardyn—from _ardens—burning,_ Gilgamesh. I am named for the burning of Solheim.”

“An event long past, buried into speculation and rumors,” Gilgamesh uttered shortly. “Your historians know little of that time.”

“That does not make it true,” Ardyn murmured softly, and Gilgamesh scoffed out of disgust. They had been through this argument before, and Ardyn knew well enough Gilgamesh’s thoughts about the sordid heritage that he hid himself behind when he felt particularly melancholy. This talk of burdens and birthrights meant nothing in the end.

“And what of Somnus, then?” Gilgamesh asked, and Ardyn looked up. This line of questioning Gilgamesh had not yet tried, so perhaps for once it would wield results were reassuring Ardyn did not. “Is he not your Kin? Does he not bear your Blood? Are not the sins of Solheim his as well?”

“What?” Ardyn blinked, affronted “No! Somnus—you know our fathers are different, Gilgamesh. Our heritage is not the same!”

“Yet your mother?” Gilgamesh said, tone softer. “Did she not bear this shame?”

Ardyn looked away, which was answer enough. The man clearly thought she did, and Gilgamesh nodded shortly. If the mother could hold the shame of a civilization long past, as Ardyn did, then surely Somnus could as well. The double standard would last only so long as Ardyn refused to face the reality that he could not tar himself with a different brush from his brother, no matter how much he might wish it so.

After a while Ardyn sighed heavily, but he didn’t acquiesce necessarily. He did utter a short, “That is why I want you here, Gil.” Gilgamesh turned his head to the side, curious. “I feel that something is wrong and I…worry. About Somnus.” Ardyn chewed upon his lip. “Somnus knows little about our heritage, Gil. There are those who would truly try to use him, to use it…and I fear they may have already begun. Please.”

“Ardyn…”

Ardyn shook his head. “It is only for a few months. Surely you can stand to be away from me for that long?” When Gilgamesh gave him a _Look_ in return Ardyn gave him a sweeter smile. “I will not be alone. You know that.”

Gilgamesh furrowed his brow, and tugged at a bit of Ardyn’s hair. “You will take the little bright star with you, then?”

Ardyn laughed. “He would follow after me if I didn’t!”

“You Swear,” Gilgamesh said, and Ardyn went quiet. “You Swear to keep him with you—to not run off because of sudden insecurity? To inform him of your needs?”

“Gilgamesh—”

“I will only agree if you only agree to honor the Oaths he has given you,” Gilgamesh said, and Ardyn looked down at his lap. “I will not see you suffer alone, Ardyn. You have done so long enough—and do not think he has not seen it too.”

Ardyn didn’t answer for a long time, so Gilgamesh waited. He waited and watched as the Healer puzzled upon the words and Gilgamesh’s sudden insistence and acquiescence. Gilgamesh knew that Ardyn found it odd, how he would give in. The few times before that Ardyn tried to beg Gilgamesh to stay and watch Somnus only a handful ever worked, and only because Gilgamesh knew Ardyn would be nearby. This time Ardyn would be months away, travel a distance too far for Gilgamesh to step into the Mists and follow, and Ardyn knew this well.

“…I Swear,” Ardyn said, and Gilgamesh raised a hand for his friend to clasp, which Ardyn did. “I will honor his Oaths, as you honor yours.”

Gilgamesh nodded and bid, “Go. I will Guard the Gates for Somnus and await your return.” Ardyn nodded, face seriously, and then it broke it a wide grin with a bit of a laugh and Gilgamesh smiled. He knew the other man felt relief, and while it was not the Path Gilgamesh would have chosen at least Gilgamesh knew Ardyn would not be alone in the dark with his daemons.

“You are being far too serious for a little journey up to Steyliff, Gilgamesh,” Ardyn said, and nudged Gilgamesh in the shoulder as if he hadn’t nearly broken apart in front of the taller man from his burdens. “It’s only for a few months! Have some fun while I am away, hm? Perhaps release some of that tension with Somnus.” Ardyn leaned forward with a bit of a grin. “You are far too tense, anyway, my friend. _Enjoy_ yourself. Somnus won’t mind.”

Gilgamesh spluttered for a moment at the brazen words, and then laughed. What else did he expect from Ardyn, truly? One moment serious and somber, the next a ray of sunshine and offering his own brother upon a silver platter for Gilgamesh to feast. He nudged Ardyn back and smiled. He would miss the other man for the months of travel to Steyliff before his return, but he would weather the times well he knew.

“Remember to bring something back for your bride to be, Ardyn,” Gilgamesh said in return, and Ardyn threw his hands up.

“Gah! Do not remind me—Aera would _kill_ me if I did not return with some ancient trinket from the depths of a ruin. Honestly between her, you, and Silver…I am surprised I get to spend any time beneath the sun and not in the depths of some cavernous pit!”

Yes, Gilgamesh decided, he would miss Ardyn in the coming months.


End file.
